In Retrospect
by Raze Flyn
Summary: Rewrite of a fic originally put up under a different name. Danny looks back at his life.


Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon and anyone I'm not aware of.

Notes: This is a rewrite of a fic I originally uploaded under Glasswolf. This is a substantial rewrite. I originally planned to just tweak it but as I got started ideas came to me. The original was uploaded to my glasswolf account on 05/05/2008. I have taken it down from there but the original version remains on my past work journal. The original version was 824 words this new version is 893 words.

Pairings: Mention of Past Danny/Sam and current Danny/Valerie.

In Retrospect

In retrospect he sometimes wished he could have saved the world without revealing his identity. At first things had been great he was a hero to everyone at school and his family finally knew the truth. Of course once the newness wore off things became a lot tougher and he began experiencing the downside of fame. His public identity meant that everyone knew where to find him from the guys in white to over eager fans wanting something form him. After that he'd been unable to have a life of his own. In many ways Danny Phenton's life ended as Danny Phantom's life began.

The hardest outcome to deal with was the gulf that had grown between him and Sam. They'd just gotten together and all too soon were torn apart by the demands his schedule placed on him. The fact that Sam began to use her fame as Danny's girlfriend to campaign for causes she believed in hadn't helped matters. It had led to fights after he'd been ambushed by reporters asking if he supported some of her more radical causes. He could still remember the fight when he'd after a bad day and difficult battle had been less than diplomatic in his answer about her crusade to have a city wide week without meat. That moment in many ways had been the beginning of the end of their relationship and damaged their friendship in a way that it still hadn't really recovered from.

He glanced over the newspaper that had started his musings. Sam a star activist had recently gotten married to a fellow activist named Dean and the two for their honey moon had gotten arrested protesting a company that was trying to clear cut a section of the rainforest.

"You should have gone to the wedding," a voice said behind him. "We could have handled things here." He turned to see his wife Valerie standing on the other side of his desk. "You could have easily found the time if you weren't being petty and vindictive."

His parents had founded a semi official ghost hunting service with the local government and he had been one of the first recruits. Danielle and Valerie had both followed him into the program and over time Valerie had gotten over her mistrust of him and a few years ago they'd resumed their relationship form high school.

"I didn't particularly want to go," he said which in all honest was true. "Besides she didn't come to our wedding she had a protest to go to." He knew He knew he was being immature but he'd been extremely hurt that Sam had missed his wedding. "What's this?"

"The final report on that haunted parade float," she seemed tired. "My shift's over so I'm heading home." He nodded, "I still say you should call Sam and apologize for missing her wedding." She smiled at him. "I'll see you at home don't be to long."

"I won't," he said watching her go and wondering if Danielle would pop into the office before her shift. He knew that Danielle was on his side but his younger sister was also immature and tended to take things personally.

He could still remember Tucker's clear bewilderment when his parents had adopted Danielle when they finally learned about her. Of course thinking about his best friend reminded him that Tucker agreed with Valerie that he needed to call Sam and appologize for missing her wedding. That alone gave him pause since the two rarely agreed on anything and when they did they were usually right and he was wrong.

He knew it was a bit petty to have blown Sam off just because part of him was still ticked that she'd skipped out on his wedding. She'd apologized afterwards though and he shouldn't have been surprised. It reminded him a lot of the bad times in their relationship. He had eventually realized that they would have never lasted. Sam was determined to save the world in her own way and they just drifted apart. He could respect most of her ideals but he couldn't live in her world and she could never accept that he couldn't use his power and fame the way she needed him too.

The worst part was he wasn't sure they were still even friends anymore. He could count on one hand the number of times they'd seen each other over the last few months and he knew Tucker still spoke with Sam regularly despite being the president of a multi billion dollar tech company. They could put aside their issues and still be friends so why couldn't he and Sam.

He decided to apologize and picked up the phone. "Hello this is Sam and Dean we aren't available at the moment as we are saving the world leave a message at the tone." Her voice said cheerfully. He put the phone down he'd try again another time as he didn't want to say he was sorry on an answering machine.

He would head home talk to Valerie about things and maybe give Tucker a call. He would see if Tucker could help him get the three of them together so he could say he was sorry in person. He hoped they could begin to patch up their mangled friendship because there were times he missed his best friend.

The End..

I never cared for the Danny/Sam relationship and see it ending badly very easily. The Sam Dean thing was unintentional in the original version and I nearly changed the name of the OC that was Sam's husband but I decided to leave it in as a throw back to the original fic.


End file.
